Last WEEK in the STATES Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 11:09

Yo yo,

Family. The time is at hand. This is officially my last week in the USA?! Ah well, I am feeling more and more ready to leave but I also don't think it has really even hit me at all. This week was pretty slow. One of the slowest of the transfer. We had meetings, Temple day, Meetings and wind out the wazoo so tracting or contacting anyone was hopeless. We DID however have some pretty crazy miracles though so I will get to those because those are what actually matter. Temple day was perfect. Exactly what I needed. If you ever need to just forget yourself for an hour and feel the comforting spirit. GO to the TEMPLE. Just walk around it if thats all you have time for. That place is the best. Watched the newest video again and then it hit me that this is probably the last Temple session I will ever get to do on my mission. Don't really know if they do it in Joao Pessoa or no. But yeah it was a great day. Got to say goodbye to most of the missionaries in that area that I love. Still thinking that maybe I might get to see Elder Tekanene again but I think that hope is fading. On Saturday, we have baptisms scheduled for Kenadie and Anthony Elder. Crazy story though... We are sitting in church yesterday during the Branch Council when I receive a text from Sister Elder saying that Kenadie no longer want's to get baptized this weekend!?!?.. My heart sunk. I didn't know really what to feel but in all honesty I was never really doubting that she would ever question it. So we see them in church and talk to them and really it was David that told me that she could  very well change her mind before Sat so we are hoping and praying that all will work out this weekend. Apparently the David's ex-wife is sweeping through and tearing everything apart that she can... This just is another testimony builder to me that Satan doesn't want Baptisms! It's all good though. Anthony is still down and we are going over there tomorrow night to talk and teach the rescue mission of a lifetime. At the end of church we found out that another kid in the ward, (belongs to a semi-less active family, has slight autism) has finally after 4 years decided that this next weekend would be a good time to get baptized. SO in one day we lost an Ondate and gained another!? So we could have 1 baptism this weekend, or we could have 2 or 3. Guess you will have to stay posted!! But it is a really huge blessing and I am so grateful to know that this is how my last weekend in USA will end!

We had our primary program as well this weekend so that was really funny to watch . We got some good ones out here too. Got my official VISA info. I fly out Tuesday the 4th at 7:25 in the morning. I then fly to Saint Paul, MIN - then to Atlanta, GR - then to Sao Paulo, Brasil! 25 hours in total including layovers so I am sure I will call during one of them. Probably from MIN... or Atlanta - whichever you prefer. Yeah, I need to figure the calling card stuff. I don't think I have that many min on my old card. I will take my Black suit for sure. Grey one I was thinking about taking anyways and then just give it away to some guy on the street that needs it haha.. you tell me what to do mom and I will do it though. I can pack like a pro now so don't you worry one bit. I am really pumped to go to Brazil so don't stress it mom. I know it's where the Lord wants me. Besides if I were to get transferred outta the Ritz I would have wanted to leave anyways. I got the Lemke package! Tell them thanks for me! I am trying to send some letters off soon to get rid of my US Stamps so tell them they can be expecting one of those as well. 

Family- Mom&Dad- keep being awesome. Mom I really need you to get some sleep and take care of yourself. I am totally good. Love the mission and especially all the trails that come with it!  Stay strong. Doubt not, fear not. God loves ya! Hope to hear from you guys next week!

Alright that about wraps it up.

You guys are the best family a missionary could hope for! Have a great week!

Tchao

ELDER CHRISTENSEN 

Picture overload!

oh here are some pictures flooding in from all the past events!

1. Patti's Baptism

 

 1. Patti's Baptism

 2. Birthday Package

 3. General Conference on Sat.. by ourselves..

 4. Companion Elder Lauti 

 5. Elder Christensen artistic?

 6. Waterfall they got a parking ticket at?

Sure do love seeing this kid's smiling face!

Ritzville on the RISE! Travel plans.‏ Sent: Mon 10/20/14 1:46 PM

Oi Minha Familia

I feel like every week I say pretty much the same thing.. But in all honesty this week was CRAZY! haha It's so weird to BE in the week and try and figure out how to fill every hour with something to do and all the while thinking about how long you have until the next P-Day and then finally arriving at P-day and asking yourself what happened last week cause its all a blur. Highlights for the week. Had one of the most spirit filled lessons on my mission with the Roberts family out in Odessa <less active older couple that I mentioned in some of my earlier letters when they promised me they would come to church at some point before I leave> and then right after we dropped by the Elder family for a lesson and walked away knowing that after 10 baptismal invitations we finally have a date set for Kenadie and Anthony's baptism! Seriously it was one of the most spiritually draining yet worthwhile moments on my mission! I am just so stoked for the Elders Family! They still have two more kids to work on but just knowing that K&A are stepping up as the role models for the older brothers make my heart melt every time! I freaking love that family! Then latter in the week we met a brand new investigator that is golden! She kept telling us over and over that she was looking for something more and now she feels like she has finally found it! In my head I just kept saying over and over "You're gonna get baptized..Yep you're gonna get baptized for sure"! Ritzville is pouring out blessings and potential! If I was a betting man I would put money on Ritzville becoming a Ward before I finish my mission. The lord is preparing this place like crazy! Alexis is pretty awesome too! She can't come to church for like 2 weeks because of all these weekend plans she has set up but,.. she wants to. And the lessons are super powerful every time! If she made church a priority and just comes even once, she will be baptized, no doubt in my mind.  Sooo yeah I pretty much love this place and every week is crazy packed with miracles!

Elder Lauti and I are getting along great! Everything seems to be smooth sailing for at least the next few weeks.

I say at least the next few weeks because I found out yesterday that my VISA is officially here and that I am flying out to Brazil next transfer (November 3rd or 4th) . I don't know any of the details of when exactly my flight plan is what the logistics of it will mean but I will probably be in the MTC in Sao Paulo for 2 weeks to touch up on the language and then head up north to Joao Pessoa. I honestly don't know how to feel about it. Obviously I still know that it will be a great adventure and the people there will be incredible and that everything will be worth it in the end, but for whatever reason I just don't feel 100 percent stoked about it. I have grown to love the people of Spokane. Not just my converts or members but other missionaries, investigators, and even random people around my areas! I feel like I am simultaneously ending and starting my mission at one moment in time. We have a temple session planned for this Friday so that will do me some good to do some real pondering and get my self in the right mentality for all of this. I'm not gonna lie, this may be the hardest thing I will ever have to do on my mission. But I know that Heavenly Father is watching out for me. I have had too many experiences since being on my mission to ever doubt the fact that God has a greater design for what my life should be like than I could ever create on my own. For now we will just hit these next few weeks in the states with all we got. 

Alright er-body! We gotta go hop in our RIG and drive out past the CRICK to go help some WARSHintonites learn about the Gospel.

Write you again in a couple-few days now,

Com Amor,

ELDER CHRISTENSEN  

Old addresses.

Elder Cooper Christensen

310 W 10th St.

Ritzville, WA

99169

1st area until 7/7/2014

3532 15th Street E

Lewiston ID,

83501

Spokane Mission Address

820 South Pines Road Suite 101

Spokane Valley, WA 99206

crazy crazy days..‏ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:24

Oh my goodness.. Family! How are ya? 

This week was insane now that I look back on it. Patti Nofsinger got baptised this Sunday and it was too sweet! HA It was pretty funny actually. She is just a goofy person and she also brought her blind neighbor that she lives next door to and he kept shouting out stuff at the wrong times and it was just hilarious. We walked in to the room where the FONT was (because there is not enough room to hold the whole thing inside the primary room) and right as brother Nelson raised his hand to perform the ordinance Patti's blind friend shouted out, "So what are we lookin' at NOW?!"  hahaha It was pretty funny. Irreverent for sure but I can't lie. I was laughing the whole time. I am just so excited for Patti to progress in the gospel and see just how much her life will begin to change because of it. We had a pretty stress filled week leading up to it actually. We had ZL/DL exchanges, 2 Baptismal interviews for Patti, and meetings like crazy so now that I look back on it all I just wonder how we even made it through in the first place. We also found a new investigator. Her name is Alexis and she is living with some less active members and taking care of their kids while they work. This less-active family is already one of my favorites on the mission and so we are stoked to see them come back in full and introduce the gospel to Alexis! Such awesome people, and Alexis accepted a soft baptismal invite so that is now our new area of focus! Elder's kids are getting along just about the same as before. I'm not gonna lie I just want to see it happen before I leave this area. I don't know if that's selfish for me to think or not but I just want to have it happen already! haha 

Birthday was great! Thanks for all the Email love and pictures and Video messages! You guys are truly the best! I had a pretty normal day for my birthday out here! haha Just the way I would like it. IT was actually kinda weird because the people that we had dinner with were celebrating  the birthday of their granddaughter and so I counted that as good enough! <btw- this family we ate dinner with were pretty crazy.. haha we talked no joke for 40 min about water births because Sister J is a mid-wife. Elder Lauti almost lost it>  haha Soon enough though the branch found out and sang me happy birthday at the ward activity on Saturday! haha I love these people too much!  AND then as an extension of my Birthday gifts this week, yesterday we had ZONE conference and got to watch MEET THE MORMONS! I don't know if you guys have heard about it or if it even came anywhere close to where you guys are but IT IS SO SICK! GO SEE IT ASAP! It was pretty sweet. I guess the First Presidency just provided every mission president with a copy of the movie so that all the missionaries could watch it! 

ALRIGHT ENOUGH!

LOVE ya

ELDER CHRISTENSEN

ps no pictures until we decide to find somewhere other than this library to write! Hope you can last!

What the heck?‏ Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 11:10

Alright alright. SO my week was pretty great! We have had a bunch of great opportunities this week to teach and contact some great people. I keep feeling bad because as a new missionary all you want to do is go out and teach or do something to help you break off the new missionary nerves of talking to new people... but in Ritzville that doesn't happen all too often!! haha Especially when you have to do 4.5 hours of study every morning! But we are easing into a regular work week without too many meetings and other things that kinda get in the way. We are getting excited about the potential going down in the area and we can visually see just how if we played our cards right.. potential baptisms could be coming in the near future! Patti is getting baptized this Sunday @ 5 o'clock! No idea who is going to baptize or anything like that. I want my SON to do it but I don't know, she kinda has a weird trust thing.. So I might be the one she asks.. and she is "deathly afraid of water" (her words...) haha IT will be great though. The Elder kids are too busy to be on track for this weekend. But we will get them to commit to a date here next week. That family is so great! We watched Sunday Morning Conference with them at their place! The poor kids were bored out of their minds! haha Funny story: Anthony is 10 yrs old and one who we are trying to get baptized here soon. He looks around in the middle of the session and sees all of us writing on our spirals and notepads (Me, Elder Lauti and Sis Elder) so he goes into his room and grabs a star wars spiral and starts taking notes!! haha I was stoked! haha He probably lasted about 5 minutes before he realized he didn't want to do that so he just drew pictures of robots for the rest of the time! haha  

Conference was so awesome though!! I loved it all. I felt like a whole bunch of the talks were about President Monson though.. I couldn't decide if that was a good sign or not. There were a few apostles who I was a little concerned about health wise but idk. Just seemed like that was the flavor I was picking up. Elder Bednar laid it down for us in the afternoon session! We were watching it with Patti and I was already pumped for him to talk cause he is my BOY! But then he stands up and is like, "Today I am directly talking to those of you who are not members of the church." I was freaking out! I started to stare Patti down for the remainder of the talk! haha I really liked Elder Christofferson's talk too which is good because I have never really been drawn to his talks before. President Uchtdorf killed it this year in both his Priesthood and General Session talks. Elder Cook destroyed the mic with his talk too in the Priesthood sesh. (aka he did really good) haha idk I can go on and on about all the talks. They were way too good. Also I liked the native language thing but I was bummed when they decided to voice over rather than subtitled it. I almost died when Elder Godoy went up and gave it in Portuguese and I couldn't hear it. I now know what talk I will look up for language study though..

Keep of the busy lifestyle  and THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE! I loved it mom. Your the best! Shoes were dope and I especially enjoyed all the awkward pictures you made everyone take! haha You crack me up mom, but I love you endlessly for it! 

Know that I love ya,

MISSIONS ARE THE BEST.

ELDER CHRISTENSEN